The Great Escape's Jon McIldowie talks to eFestivals

Jon McIldowie is the event director and co-founder of The Great Escape. He has been promoting gigs and clubs since the age of 16, first in his home town of Birmingham and then as a student in Liverpool before moving to London. In 1999 Jon joined the Barfly Club as assistant and then Head Promoter for the London venue. Jon has now moved into the position of Promotions Director as part of MAMA Group. In 2006 Jon jointly founded The Great Escape Festival and Convention and oversees the event in addition to tour and festival booking including Lovebox. eFestivals spoke to Jon about how the festival is shaping up.

Hi Jon. How are plans for next year going?
Really good, we're stepping up the production, stepping up the venues that we're using, and using some more big venues. We've got a lot of media partners already on board, and confirmed Australia as our lead country for this coming year. That's very exciting as there's a lot of good current music coming out of Australia at the moment. I'm looking forward to next year, the response from this year has been phenomenal, we've already got a large number of delegates signed up, and to have that six or seven months still to go is pretty exceptional for us.

What's the process for deciding the partner country?
We look at country's where we feel there's a lot of talent coming through which needs to be highlighted. We've worked with France, Canada, and Norway before and we just felt that Australia has got a lot of exciting businesses coming through, very dynamic entrepreneurs, and some fantastic talent like The Temper Trap who played our event this year. They're just one example of the kind of bands coming through at the moment. Every year having a host or lead country gives us a chance to really focus on certain talent and businesses from that country and Australia felt right for next year.

You mentioned The Temper Trap, I wanted to ask, do bands that have played this year that are Australian get ruled out of next year's line-up?
Not at all, what we try and do is highlight bands who are on the cusp of doing greater things. The Temper Trap we actually saw in the autumn of last year and thought they were fantastic, and really felt that The Great Escape would be a great platform for them. There's other bands like Ruby Suns, who are coming through who played this year, but we feel there's still a place for them next year. They're on our short-list for next year.

How did you come up with the concept of the festival?
Myself and Martin Elbourne were in a bar in Canada at a small conventional and we basically went through a list of the different events that we liked and their strengths and weaknesses, and we were being very critical of all these events, and I think somebody just said, “Well, why don't you set up your own as you know so much?” After a few beers we agreed to, and it kind of went from there.

Are there any acts you've sent requests out for next year that have confirmed?
We've started, the application process is still open, we've got bands signing up all the time, and we've got people in the office who do pretty much nothing else but listen to new music. So it's still pretty much at the planning stages.

Great job...
Yeah, great job, but it's exhausting on your ears, after about thirty bands your ears become kind of numb and you need to take a break. It is a fun job particularly when you find a hot new act, then it's very exciting.

The indie rock music scene's popularity seems to be contracting at the moment, is there anything likely to fill the vacuum?
It depends how you define indie, in terms of independent music scene is growing massively. You mean in terms of style, four guys with guitars. I don't know if it's contracting or evolving, if you look at the charts there's less indie rock bands out there, but there's a lot of bands bubbling under who are embracing different genres. Whether it's electro or a more urban influence who are still using guitars and retaining their indie credentials. I think it's a time of change, it's a time of experimentation, and that for us is really exciting.

What's been the biggest lesson you've learnt from putting the event on in the past?
I think the most important lesson is to be inclusive and not think conventionally, so right from day one we ignored the definition of signed and unsigned. We felt that the old convention of signing a record deal and then all your money worries were over is no longer the case. I think that artists these day have many different revenues streams, and music is just one of them. For some acts it's a very small part of their income and they're still successful. So, it's trying to focus on new business models all the time, trying to look at the business with a fresh viewpoint at all times. That's been the biggest learning experience.

Do you think most of the music industry has changed now, and that most of the revenue streams are coming from live music again?
I think it's changing rapidly, and musicians and artists are increasingly about their brand value rather than their record sales. So, other areas like their merchandise, live, personal appearances and brand endorsements are becoming increasingly important, but I don't think that's at the loss of the music. I think it just needs to be managed very carefully.

You also deal with Lovebox, how is that going?
Yes, I got involved with Lovebox when MAMA, The Great Escape's parent company purchased a shareholding which was about three year's ago. I've been involved in booking it for the last two years, and I'm involved in booking it next year as well.

What are the main differences between booking acts for the two festivals?
I think the motivations are very different. Lovebox is about playing a cool, hip, metropolitan festival and The Great Escape is about playing in front of the right people. The two have a very different level of act as well.

And how is booking acts for it going?
We're announcing acts on Tuesday (tomorrow), I can't reveal anything now.

What other events are you involved in for next year?
Nothing at the moment, there's a few things that are in advanced planning stages.

Are these completely new outdoor events?
Yes, they are outdoor events. It's an exciting time, there's still growth in the market for live events I think, or the potential for growth and innovation which is good.

You don't think the recession makes it a bad time to launch a new event?
I think you need to be careful, you need to be very clear about your audience. I think if you can be completely realistic, it's achievable to start new businesses. I can't say any more about it, I'd get into trouble, it's early days yet.

Thanks for your time Jon.

The Great Escape features hundreds of international and UK pop, cutting edge, hip hop, electronic, and rock acts showcased at venues all over Brighton.

The dates for 2010 are confirmed as Thursday 13th until Saturday 15th May 2010. No acts are confirmed as yet. This year's partner country has been confirmed and will be Australia, so expect a host of Antipodean acts to join up with over 350 bands performing in over 30 venues spread across Brighton over the course of three days.

The line-up will include over 300 acts from around the globe in around 30 venues within Brighton City Centre. The venues are all a close walk from each other with each venue equipped to an international showcase standard.

As well as the live music, there's also a number of "Parkinson" style interviews with luminaries from the world of Music and Media, to show the way in which success is achieved, as well as educational panels, workshops and networking sessions confirmed.

Early bird tickets are on sale, priced at £35 until Monday 21st December.. The ticket entitles you to entry to all gig venues over the 3 days for over 18s only. To buy tickets click here.

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